


By His Side

by Molly_Jae



Category: Shadowhunters (TV), The Shadowhunter Chronicles - All Media Types, The Shadowhunter Chronicles - Cassandra Clare
Genre: Alternate Universe - Gods & Goddesses, Alternate Universe - Reincarnation, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Happy Ending, Hopeful Ending, Hurt/Comfort, Inspired by Hades and Persephone (Ancient Greek Religion & Lore), Light Angst, M/M, Mild Hurt/Comfort, Reincarnation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-26
Updated: 2021-02-26
Packaged: 2021-03-16 21:22:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,626
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29706768
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Molly_Jae/pseuds/Molly_Jae
Summary: It starts with a tale passed from one generation to the next: of a beloved daughter of the earth, the goddess of spring; of a plotting god who fell for her beauty and lured her to his lair; of a love doomed before it was given the chance to bloom; of a queen always meant to be parted from her king.And while all legends are true, rarely are they passed on in full.In which Alec is Persephone, Magnus is Hades, and they've said far too many goodbyes (that ends now).
Relationships: Hades/Persephone, Magnus Bane/Alec Lightwood
Comments: 4
Kudos: 59





	By His Side

**Author's Note:**

> I've had a Malec Hades/Persephone blurb in my docs for weeks when [AceOnIce](https://archiveofourown.org/users/AceOnIce/pseuds/AceOnIce) shared a lyric from Hadestown, which made me want to listen to the entire musical all over again and kinda just caused the 200 word blurb into this 4k+ oneshot.

It starts with a tale passed from one generation to the next: of a beloved daughter of the earth, the goddess of spring ( _and the life brought with it_ ); of a plotting god who fell for her beauty and lured her to his lair ( _to her demise_ ); of a love doomed before it was given the chance to bloom ( _how ironic that it were seeds that aided its growth_ ); of a queen always meant to be parted from her king.

And while all legends are true, rarely are they passed on in full.

The god of death had met the spring goddess long before she entered his realm or even saw her face. Every life she fostered and grew eventually met him, after all. It was only natural for her to wish to know where they went and how they were treated. And where everyone saw darkness and suffering ( _and scorned him for power he had not chosen_ ), she’d seen loneliness and curiosity. He’d never thought he had much chance to interact with the vibrancy she brought, and no one looked at him when there were his two brothers to contend with.

A courtship that lasted centuries ensued before she even set foot in the underworld.

“ _You cannot be serious,_ ” Demeter had hissed at her daughter once she’d heard. “ _You do not know him!_ ”

“ _Which is why I plan to get to know him._ ” Persephone’s voice had not faltered as she continued, “ _That is what a courtship is about, is it not?_ ” Her mother meant well, she knew, but Persephone knew her heart better than anyone. There would be no one else for her but the god of death. All that was left was for him to finally realize and accept it.

All that she cultivated eventually died, and every single one had her love for him embedded in their very beings. So much so that he could feel it whenever one of hers passed into his realm. When it was finally her person that came to meet him ( _alive_ ), he had been the first to insist that she return home.

 _“You’ve always given me a choice,”_ Persephone had said in a tongue known only to the gods. Her hands had cradled his face, warm and soothing; vastly different from the cold of death or the heat of hellfire. _“And this is me choosing.”_

 _“None but myself can survive in this realm, my love,”_ Hades had held her close, arm around her waist and their foreheads pressed together.

 _“This is only the Underworld, my love,”_ her cheeky reply had made him smile.

He knew their time had been limited. If she weren’t forcibly pulled away, he would drive her away himself ( _or who can stand to love death himself?_ ) and ensure her happiness. He would hate himself for ever causing her smile to dim ( _or worse if she should ever shed a tear_ ).

“ _It is not love,_ ” Aphrodite had said later, helping herself to the fruits of the earth surrounding Persephone. “ _He has no interest in it._ ” She had looked at the younger goddess with an air of superiority Persephone hoped she never did herself. “ _Perhaps can’t even feel it._ ”

Persephone had not bat an eye. You didn’t grow among the gods and not learn when to parry and when to dodge. “ _I do not love him because he loves me. It is enough for me that he lets me stand by his side and love him. For him to return my affections is a gift I will cherish for eternity._ ” Most of all, you learn when to attack.

“ _You will grow tired one day,_ ” assured Aphrodite, voice soft and full of supposed concern. “ _He will drive you away._ ”

“ _He can try._ ” Persephone had countered, already having experienced just how far Hades’ own insecurity with regard to his place in her life ran.

Others had tried to warn her away, or even seduce one or the other.

But she had stayed ( _they both had_ ). Neither her mother nor the other gods had managed to convince her to leave him--not until Hades had hailed her queen ( _long after she was already seen and accepted as such_ ) and sworn that for as long as life and death existed, so would their love.

Persephone had pressed her lips to his, and stepped back to show him the seeds of the only fruit that grew in the realm. It would bind her to the realm, they knew. He’d never served it to her, making sure only to give her prepared fruit with the seeds taken out. There was no part of him that sought to keep her in such a way. Any love they shared would be a love chosen, not obligated nor demanded.

“ _Now they cannot prevent my return to you,_ ” she had swallowed six seeds, guaranteeing her travel between realms every six moons.

It was a sacrifice they had been willing to undertake ( _but it was not a sacrifice some thought enough_ ). Aphrodite doubted the sincerity of Hades’ love. After all, if he couldn’t love _her_ , how could he anyone else? Demeter loathed the very thought of her daughter being tainted by the god. And so a curse was cast, binding the lovers to Hades’ words, but damning them to love and lose time and again until the Fallen Ascend.

( _And when would the Fallen ever Ascend but at the end of time itself?_ )

 _“We always find our way back to each other,”_ Hades recalled Persephone claim when they had been reincarnated as two poor servant girls, Hades on her deathbed and Persephone cleaning up after her.

A hundred lifetimes pass before Hades is born a little brown boy with golden cat eyes and fire in his blood. Hell calls to him, as it always did, but this time felt different. Asmodeus welcomes him with open arms. He trains and hones his power, and a decade after returning to earth to wreak havoc, he meets a man with green skin and horns that teaches him the value of humanity. Later on, he finds a woman picking flowers in a meadow and begins to realize he is more than just _Son of Asmodeus_.

In an entirely different life, he would have watched her from afar, satisfied to see her live and laugh from the shadows. But in this one, her brightness draws him in, like the earth to the sun, and when her hands glow with power not unlike his own, he knows his heart is in her hands. Both warlocks, they live a miniscule fifteen years at each other’s side. She dies in his arms after a particularly difficult run-in with nephilim, and as her magic reaches out to his, fueling him and stopping him from healing her, he recognizes Persephone as her last breath joins his first as _Magnus_.

The destruction that follows his grief introduces the world to _Magnus Bane_.

He meets her again as Helena, and with her he experiences what it means not to be chosen. As a warlock, he was the end of the line. He cannot give life, only take it and maybe prolong it, and Helena had wanted nothing more than to be a mother. She lives the rest of her life happy and with another, as Magnus protects her and her line without her knowledge. When she passes, it’s surrounded by her children and their children ( _and with himself disguised as their pet cat who eventually leaves with her spirit)_.

The next time they meet, he is struggling to accept the reality of not having seen her in more than three decades and having begun to look at others the way he had once looked at her. And then she returns into his life. ( _As Hiroshi._ ) A painter. ( _As Jane._ ) A maid. ( _As George._ ) A warrior. ( _As Etta._ ) A singer.

Between them ( _and sometimes during, when they’ve chosen otherwise_ ), he finds love with others. Some are sweet and leave him hurt but grateful, others leave scars he never thought he’d have to endure. When he swears off of love, it is after a particularly tumultuous relationship that spanned a few decades, on and off ( _Camille could never have been Persephone_ ).

The lack of a romantic love, however, does not equate to a lack of love or a romantic partner. Even before Pandemonium’s doors opened, he was never without his own pick of bedfellows. And beyond that, he has friends. More than that, he has his own ( _chosen_ ) family. They’d chosen him as surely as he had them; taken him in ( _Ragnor_ ), saved and been saved by him ( _Catarina, Raphael, an entire group of downworlders from before, during, and after the Uprising_ ).

Etta, the last of Persephone he’d met a few years after having taken Raphael in, had reminded him to never stop looking for love. She hadn’t held it against him that he had loved others that hadn’t been Persephone. He was warned against locking his heart, but then she’d died on a cold marble floor with a bullet to her head after a bank robbery gone wrong ( _such coldness for the warmest person he knew_ ).

Nearly a century later, he meets a nephilim that strikes his curiosity and tears down the walls he’s built with a single smile. He remembers Persephone’s permission. In nearly every life, she’d encouraged Magnus ( _Hades_ ) to find love. And Magnus does. Did. Will.

So he gets to know Alec ( _Alexander_ ) and falls in love with the brave shadowhunter that would destroy the very ground he was standing on to make something right. And he’s always done everything for those he loves. He thought he’d enjoy what time he had with Alec, even if he weren’t Persephone. The magic that brews between them goes largely unnoticed by all, save perhaps for the seelies they interact with, but those are precluded from interference by the very magic that created them.

 _“I will not ask again,”_ Magnus had said, only to eat his words after Ragnor’s passing. He had conjured an obolus and placed it on Ragnor’s cooling lips before barricading himself in his loft. Alec was off getting married. A choice had been made, and Hades was exhausted ( _how much longer did they have?_ ). In a last ditch effort to honor Persephone’s wish for him to chase love, he stands at the aisle of a nephilim wedding.

Magic sparks within him, ensuring he was ready to flee at a moment’s notice. His heart races. Who knew what these nephilim might do to him, after all.

And yet they do nothing.

Well, not _nothing_.

Alec leaves his would-have-been-wife -- against his family, his career, _his life_ \-- to pull Magnus into a spectacular first kiss that leaves him breathless and maybe a little bit intoxicated. It had been so long since he’d felt anything even remotely close to this, and Hades is grateful Magnus gets to fall in love once again. For all his loyalty to Persephone, he knows she wouldn’t begrudge him this, just as he hadn’t begrudge any of her incarnations for loving others.

How they go from that to standing on opposite sides of hellfire, Magnus hardly knows. Magic flares around them the moment Hades is in the circle.

"Your mother would want you to run the opposite direction as soon as you recognized me." Magnus hates this moment. In every incarnation of Persephone, the _remembering_ was always bittersweet. Never has it been all sweet. There was always something looming over them or holding them back.

Now, standing in a pentagram that would send him to Asmodeus' realm because he couldn't access his godly powers until they break this forsaken curse, and Alec needs Jace--couldn't bear to live without him like Persephone and the earth--

For that alone, Magnus would swallow his pride to ensure Alec's happiness ( _what more Hades for Persephone_ ).

He hadn't expected Alec to shift to Persephone the moment he'd entered the pentagram, because of course, one of them in the in-between of earth and hell would trigger their memories. Magnus tells himself it wasn’t goodbye. At the very least, he would have to return to rid Jace of Lilith’s control. At the very least, he gets this final moment with his love. At the very least, he would find them in their next life.

"Maryse did," reminds Persephone ( _Alexander_ ) with a watery laugh, eyes taking Magnus in with a new perspective. Over a thousand different lives and _seventeen thousand_ suddenly seemed inconsequential. "Just as Demeter had."

"Has." Hades corrects, though the way he holds up a finger is purely Magnus. "I have missed you so, my love." He wishes he could reach out and pull Persephone into his arms. Even just once. He has a feeling he knows what Asmodeus will demand in exchange for the power he seeks, and he only hopes…

( _What god of death ever put stock in hope?_ )

"Then stay." Persephone pleads, daring to step closer to the flames. Closer, but not into it. Not to join him. "There has to be another way."

Hades looks at him, memorizes every feature of this Persephone, one he's had for a drop in the ocean of time, but loves with every fiber of his being. It's Magnus that replies, "Tell me Jace isn't worth it."

There is no hurt in his voice. No hesitation. This is not the first time someone else had come first in Persephone’s life. Every incarnation of hers, she’d cared for at least one other beyond caring for herself. This will not be the last. As surely as the seasons will change in a never-ending retelling of his and Persephone’s story, Alec wants Jace back.

"Tell me you won't regret not trying this when I know for sure it will save him."

And when Alec says nothing, torn but resigned ( _that his_ parabatai _is worth anything and everything_ ), it's Persephone that cries out as Magnus is engulfed in Edom's flames.

The gravity of his actions weighs heavy on his very soul. Well over a millennium has passed since he’d been a god, and though he lived other lives before becoming _Son of Asmodeus_ , the past six centuries have been spent as such. He didn’t know how to exist without the constant buzz of magic under his skin. Even the few times it had been cut off from him could not compare to the debilitating powerlessness of being an actual mundane.

He looks at Persephone ( _Alec_ ) on the infirmary bed, alive thanks only to Catarina.

Knowing he was going to lose his magic, he had made sure Catarina was by his side when he had portaled to the fighting _parabatai_ . Holding Alexander in his arms, arrow in his chest and light behind his eyes receding, Magnus had cursed every higher being that wrote their story and deemed them unworthy of _happy ever after_. And when Catarina had transported them all to the Institute after having performed magical first aid on Alec, Hades begins the tedious process of convincing himself that he can stay by Persephone’s side as a mundane. Power did not matter so long as he had his love with him.

And Hades could. Hades had. Before Magnus.

It’s Magnus that holds Alec’s left hand while Jace holds his right, but it’s Hades that whispers a litany of prayers into Persephone’s skin, where his lips meet Alec’s knuckles.

Catarina’s grip on his shoulder tightens. Of those that know the truth of his identity, only Brother Zechariah, Catarina, and Alec were left--discounting the seelies, of course, and even then only the Queen and three others were informed. And while the former two have known for over a century, it is Alec that matters most.

Persephone recovers, and Alec is back as the most competent Head of the New York Institute with a mundane lover. It is Magnus that refuses to accept the truth that Hades knew to his very core: that they would be loved no matter their power ( _or lack of_ ). Persephone has proven it time and again before Magnus, but Magnus was only a man. And if Hades had succumbed to insecurities before men even wore pants, then Magnus succumbed to them while in impossibly tight ones.

The aftermath of the failed magical transfusion claws deeply into Hades in a way that even Magnus would never have understood. Hades would not have cared for power so long as he had Persephone at his side, but Magnus knew not how to be without his magic and suffered for it. Alec remains at his side, trying ( _hoping_ ) to be enough for his love. He envisions a life with Magnus where they’re both mortal and still utterly in love ( _Persephone knew it was possible_ ), but Alec couldn’t bear to see how Magnus breaks in his arms.

So when Alec leaves Magnus, it is Magnus that asks him to stay ( _to be chosen_ ), but it’s Hades that accepts the decision and builds walls back up ( _why is he cursed to remember?_ ).

Maryse sets him straight, Asmodeus is banished, and Magnus heads for Alicante, certain that he is walking to the death of his and Alec’s relationship ( _if not his own_ ). The magic that wraps around Asmodeus and Maryse is familiar but unnoticed, overwhelmed and running on adrenaline as he were. With Asmodeus banished to limbo, Magnus begins to feel the magic of Edom seek him out.

Hellfire calls him home in a way it never had since he’d woken as Magnus Bane, but is intimately familiar to Hades.

In the blink of an eye, he’s engaged ( _as Magnus, for the first time ever!_ ), and saying goodbye once again.

“I never thought I’d be a runaway groom.” ( _I never thought I’d run from you._ )

Edom welcomes its king with open arms. This is the closest he has been to accessing the vast amount of power he had as Hades, and yet it sparks neither happiness nor comfort ( _it never has_ ).

No one could question his claim when the realm changes itself as he deems fit. But save for a throne and a new outfit, Magnus doesn’t change much else. All he ( _Hades_ ) wanted was ( _wants_ ) Alec ( _Persephone_ ). And all Magnus can think about is the Lightwood ring on his finger. They will see each other again. He knows it to be true. Only, it was unlikely to be in Alec’s lifetime.

The rift must remain closed.

On earth, Alec brings up the idea of Simon turning him into a vampire and Persephone aches at being parted from her king once again. ( _How many more goodbyes must they exchange?_ )

Hades glances out at Edom through the windows, wanting nothing more than to let the hellfire in his veins take over and obliterate everything within his vicinity. How ironic that the god of death is stuck in a hell dimension not his own to save lives ( _a life_ ). His chest burns with the knowledge that it might take at least another century for Edom to stabilize under his rule enough that he could leave it without ripping open a new rift.

He savors the memories he had almost rid himself of.

There wasn’t a moment with Alec that he wanted to forget, and Hades would not let him, now that the truth of Persephone’s latest incarnation is out. ( _I would never want to forget._ )

Footsteps too heavy to be Lilith reach his ears, and then--

“Magnus!”

Hades recognizes Persephone immediately, even as he throws his arms around Alec and sighs his name. “I thought I’d never see you again.”

“I told you,” Alec grins, and it’s Persephone that Hades hears as he continues, “It’s only Edom.” Then Alec hurries to add, “And we weren’t gonna let you fight Lilith alone.”

“We?” Magnus thought of Catarina, and how _she better not have left Madzie or Raphael alone_ , only to look over Alec’s shoulder and spot Lorenzo Rey.

“I’m simply doing what any High Warlock would do.” The warlock is embarrassed, but there’s a curiosity behind his eyes that Magnus knows recognizes Hades’ power. In a hell dimension, far from all the angelic interference and without his father controlling the realm’s magic, Magnus wasn’t bothering to hide the vast power at his disposal. Had he any less control, his glamour would have dropped or he would have actually already destroyed everything.

Hades hates the way his heart stops in his chest, already dreading the answer even as Magnus asks, “And if we succeed...then what?”

Alec doesn’t miss a beat. “Then I stay here. With you.” Persephone cradles Hades’ face, far too delighted that their height difference was as it was, as Alec swears, “I’m never leaving you again.”

Later, when Magnus realizes just how loved he is by these mortals, it is Hades that approaches Lorenzo, followed by Meliorn.

“Save them,” his gaze is molten gold as he turns away from the group of nephilim and the lone vampire. “I command you as Edom’s King, son of Belial.”

Lorenzo agrees immediately, recognizing the power Magnus yields as greater than simply being king. In a far away realm, the Underworld’s hellfire calls to Edom, demanding the return of their ruler. Meliorn nods at Hades, aware of the situation but forbidden from interfering by laws of nature themselves. His own brand of magic spark within, the bond with Jace granting him a somewhat varied perspective on the matter.

And yet, the Seelies had been beholden to Persephone for being caretakers of the earth. What she had planted and cultivated, they continued to care for. They preserved the balance she helped perfect.

Magnus and Meliorn were more than acquaintances but not exactly friends. There were seelies Magnus cared for more than the one that stood before him, tied to Alec’s _parabatai_.

“Watch over him,” Magnus whispers as Hades calls on every power available to him. A sharp tug at the thread tethering Hades to the Underworld yields no power, the curse still preventing him from accessing it.

“We always have,” Meliorn replies, stepping away as Isabelle comes up to them.

She’s a ball of energy that reminds Hades of the nymphs and faeries his brothers had loved to chase. “I think I can take her. With the holy fire, I--”

“I can help you channel your power,” Hades says, holding a hand out to her. It’s the truth, though it conceals Magnus’ intentions. This is Alec’s sister, Magnus reminds Hades. If there is any way he could save her now--spare her the side effects of Heavenly Fire held by one barely considered a heavenly being--he would do so for Persephone ( _Alexander_ ). “Just take my hand.”

Arrows whiz by over their heads, grazing Lilith but not bringing her down.

“Maybe we can split the power.” Magnus hears Biscuit call out, and he knows his time is limited. The suggestion has merit, but he has already made up his mind. There’s no need for them to do anything.

This was a first for them, he notes in the back of his mind. In every life before this, it was always Persephone choosing to live separate from him, and Hades accepting it and backing off--just as he always swore he would do when they had first begun their courtship. It was always her back to him, and though sometimes they did manage to stay at each other’s side, time and death always took more than it gave.

Hades syphons Isabelle’s heavenly fire, knowing it would kill him for being demon-blooded. Hades may have been a god, but Magnus Bane was a warlock. And warlocks _burned_.

A well of power washes over him, and though Lorenzo’s magic will never feel quite as natural as his own, he accepts it for what it was: an additional means to withstand the poison he was willingly taking into his system. Gently, he guides the now unconscious Isabelle into Alec’s arms, and though his nephilim accepts, hazel eyes refuse to stop attempting to meet Magnus’ averted gaze.

Persephone passes his unconscious sister to his _parabatai_ , heart pounding as he reads the tension in Magnus’ shoulders and jaw. “Magnus,” Alec calls out, walking towards him. “My love,” Persephone whispers, already dreading what was to pass.

“I love you,” Magnus says, resolve breaking and finally looking at his would-be-husband once more. “In this life and the next,” Hades swears, standing on his toes to kiss Persephone.

“Magnus,” repeats Alec. He grips Magnus’ biceps. “I’m not going anywhere.”

“Let me handle Lilith,” Magnus says, loud enough for all to hear. “You have to take care of Jonathan back on earth.” He chances a glance at the group, seeing Jace cradling Isabelle and Simon’s focus on her. Clary watches him and Alec with Meliorn at her side. Lorenzo catches his eye and nods, conjuring a portal. “What Isabelle has given me is more than enough.”

“I’m not going anywhere,” the stubborn set of Alec’s jaw is so Persephone that Magnus weeps. ( _It was achingly familiar_.) “This is _my_ choice, Magnus.”

“You can’t survive in this realm. That rune will only take you so far, and we’re--” ( _They weren’t sure Magnus would survive._ )

The loud screech from above reminds Magnus how little time they actually have.

“Lorenzo,” Magnus barks, before quickly stealing a kiss from Alec then shoving him in the direction of the other warlock. He calls on all his power and flies to meet Lilith.

For all of Lilith’s power, she was nothing against a Magnus with Hades’ knowledge, Edom’s reserves, and Heavenly Fire. Her death results in the death of her children, and all that remains of Edom are those demons she had little to no hand in making. Various claw marks have ripped his clothes and nicked his skin, but all the pain vanishes when he realizes that amidst the ruin of what had once been Asmodeus’ castle, the eerie glow of a portal remains.

With Edom collapsing, he knows he should make his escape. The rift had been sealed from this side, and if this side collapses, then so would the possibility for the rift to reopen.

Besides, Alec is on the other side.

( _He was not._ )

Magnus begins the journey back to the castle, trying to find the balance of keeping Edom from falling apart and keeping himself alive. He debates the need for the latter, but knows he needs to at least see that they’d all made it out alive. Hades’ hellfire emerges from Magnus’ footsteps, and the pathway that the Heavenly Fire has managed to make to Hades’ abilities grants Magnus power beyond his wildest dreams. ( _And he still did not want it as much as he would have wanted to be at Alec’s side._ )

Such varied power sources would have been deadly to any other being, but he’s a warlock ( _a god_ ). He is made for and with power. And with all that had just died because of Lilith, the Underworld is flourishing ( _and Edom is able to survive and rebuild because of it_ ).

The light of the portal is unlike anything Magnus has ever seen, mostly because it is as if it wasn’t there at all. Near transparent, he would have thought it a weak portal, but the way it’s edges glimmer speak of power familiar and yet unlike his own. ( _Unlike a warlock’s._ )

He raises a hand, ready to close it, knowing that it means banishing himself to this realm. Self-imposed exile for the god of death after being cast to the Underworld in an entirely different life -- how ironic. To return to earth is to reopen the rift, and to let Edom be destroyed is to throw the realms off-balance. Who knows what would happen if he were to let an entire realm fall? Not for the first time, he feels stifled and collared by the curse that keeps him from an eternity with his love.

It is Hades and Magnus’ hands that glow, sure in his decision despite the bone-weary sadness that weighs them down. The faint sound and sense of movement behind him makes him turn around, ready for another fight.

Only...

Alexander, part-warlock because of a rune that shouldn’t exist ( _and the Angels would punish the Fairchild girl for_ ), emerges from the rubble with unusual ( _and yet intimately familiar_ ) magic in his hands.

Ice shoots through Magnus’ veins at the thought that Alec had been there and _not safe_ , but it’s also overshadowed by the sheer relief he feels at seeing him once again. This is a reward he feels he is entitled to for ridding the world of Lilith. She wasn’t going to reform millenia later. Only a god could strike down an angel or whatever distorted version of a former heavenly being Lilith had been by then. And with all the power at Magnus’ fingertips, he would have been able to kill her in a minute if it hadn’t been for her army.

“So,” Alec begins, looking far too adorable and bashful despite the dirt and ichor covering him. Magnus wants to kiss him. “That’s the first portal I’ve ever made.”

“You can’t portal to a different realm unless you’re a Seelie.” Magnus corrects automatically, even as he realizes that’s exactly what Alec ( _Persephone_ ) had done.

“Considering I’m the reason the Seelie exist in the first place, I think there should be an exception in there somewhere.” Alec wastes no time cradling Magnus’ face, lips curved in the familiar lopsided smile Magnus loved to bring out of him.

“How are you still here?” Magnus’ hands tremble as he grips Alec’s wrists. “The rune…?”

“It stopped working a few weeks ago.”

“What?”

“I think something must have happened.”

“What?”

“Lorenzo forced us through the portal -- _which we are definitely going to be talking about_ \-- and we landed back at the Institute. Jace, Clary, and Simon made sure Jonathan was taken care of. Lorenzo and Meliorn helped me make sure Izzy was going to be okay. And I was so…” Alec inhales, slow and deep. “I was so _angry_ at you for sending me away.” Persephone sobs, “For choosing death.”

“My love, I never--”

“No, I know. I’ve always known.” Alec sets his forehead against Magnus’ and closes his eyes. “My king has always made it clear that it is my happiness that he’d put above all.”

Hades shivers. “ _Persephone_.”

Alec’s eyes remain close, but he beams at Magnus anyways. “I’m here, my love.”

“I cannot leave,” Magnus doesn’t bother trying to stop the tears that escape his own closed eyes.

“And I’m not leaving.” Alec tells him. “It’s been weeks on earth, Magnus. You’ve been hailed a hero. Little by little, changes are being made to the Clave--in the Clave-- _by the Clave._ ” Persephone rubs his thumb against Hades’ cheeks. “And those are great. Wonderful. Fantastic. But none of those are you. None of those earthly changes would mean I get to have you in my arms again; that we could live the rest of our days together.”

“This will only end in heartbreak.” Hades reminds him, as if they hadn’t had a version of this conversation in every single life they’ve lived.

Persephone shakes his head, “I choose you, Magnus Bane.”

“As I do you, Alexander Lightwood.” Hades exhales slowly, “But this is not a realm you can live in.”

“I’m here, aren’t I?”

“And you’re free to visit as you please--for as long as it doesn’t harm you.”

“I’m not going anywhere, Magnus.”

“Alec, _please_.”

“You have me, my love.” Persephone brings Magnus’ lips to his once again. “I know you aren’t one for feeling, but…” Alec nudges Hades’ nose with his own, “The curse is broken. Can’t you feel it?”

And he does. Now that Persephone’s mentioned it, he feels the difference a lifted curse makes ( _but not daring to hope_ ). Alec's hands leave his face to hold his hands. The magic that greets him is warm and refreshing in a way none could ever replicate. It was the sound of a virgin forest in summer; the crunch of leaves in fall; the sight of winter's first snowfall; the scent of spring's first bloom. An Alexander Lightwood with magic that helped perfect a balance still upheld is not an ordinary nephilim.

Magnus keeps his own eyes closed, unable to give himself the chance to even consider that this all might be a dream. His hands tremble in Alec's as he asks:

“But how?”

“When the Fallen Ascend,” Persephone holds him close then, as if they could merge into one being entirely.

Hades opens his eyes, feeling the weight of all the lives they've lived settle around and within them.

More recent ones feature prominently: Aphrodite as Asmodeus, continuously prodding and sabotaging Magnus’ chances at love, from the very beginning; Demeter as Maryse, strict and unrelenting to a point, but loves her children far more than anything else; Meliorn capitalizing on the Alliance rune and the break in the binds that forbade the seelies from interference, distorting the balance during all the commotion to leave a portal open for Alec.

To Magnus.

Persephone falls into his arms, face tucked into his neck.

With but a thought, Edom shifts and transforms around them.

  
  


It starts with a tale passed from one generation to the next: of a beloved daughter of the earth, the goddess of spring ( _reborn and remade_ ); of a plotting god who fell for her beauty and lured her to his lair ( _to hell that--_ they _\--went_ ); of a love doomed before it was given the chance to bloom ( _how ironic that blooms were the first to appear on a realm rebuilt_ ); of a queen never to be parted from her king.

And while all legends are true, rarely are they passed on in full.

And rarer still, do their lives continue.

**Author's Note:**

> Kudos and comments are wonderful!
> 
> If you want a place to scream Malec and everything Shadowhunter, [Join us on the Malec Discord Server](https://discord.gg/Nub9QsyX)!
> 
> Feel free to follow me on twitter too, if you want: [@mollyjae_twt](https://twitter.com/mollyjae_twt)


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